11.6 Integrating Graphics
Sometimes, despite writing clearly and concisely, it can be helpful to your audience if you use supporting graphics–whether that be tables, illustrations, maps, photos, charts, or some other type of other visual aid.
Before getting into details on creating, formatting, and incorporating graphics, consider the types and their functions. You can use graphics to represent the following elements in your writing:
- Objects: If you’re describing a fuel-injection system, you’ll probably need a drawing or diagram of the object. If you are explaining how to graft a fruit tree, you’ll need some illustrations of how that task is done. Photographs, drawings, diagrams, and schematics are the types of graphics that show objects.
- Numbers: If you’re discussing the rising cost of housing in Vancouver, you could use a table with the columns being for five-year periods since 1970; the rows could be for different types of housing. You could show the same data in the form of bar charts, pie charts, or line graphs. Tables, bar charts, pie charts, and line graphs are some of the principal ways to show numerical data.
- Concepts: If you want to show how your company is organized, such as the relationships of the different departments and officials, you could set up an organization chart, which is boxes and circles connected with lines showing how everything is hierarchically arranged and related. This would be an example of a graphic for a concept; this type depicts nonphysical, conceptual things and their relationships.
- Words: Graphics can be used to depict words. You’ve probably noticed how some textbooks may put key definitions in a box, maybe with different colours in the background. The same can be done with key points or extended examples.
Documenting Graphics
Just as you would cite and reference a paraphrase or a direct quote, so too must you cite and reference any graphics that you use that were created by someone else or that were based on someone else’s data. Indicate the source of any graphic or data you have borrowed. Whenever you borrow a graphic or data from some other source, document that fact in the figure title using an in-text citation. You should also include the reference information in the reference list.
Guidelines for Using Graphics
- Use graphics whenever they would normally be necessary.
- Make sure your graphics are appropriate to your audience, subject matter, and purpose. Don’t include advanced, highly technical graphics your audience may not understand.
- Intersperse graphics and text on the same page. Place graphics as near to the point in the text where they are relevant as is reasonable and don’t put them on pages by themselves or attach them to the end of documents. However, if a graphic does not fit properly on one page, put it at the top of the next, and continue with regular text on the preceding page. Don’t leave half a page blank just to keep a graphic near the text with which it is associated.
- Always discuss graphics in nearby text preceding the graphic. Don’t just include a graphic without an explanation. Orient readers to the graphic and explain its basic meaning. They need to have a purpose and be introduced before the reader encounters them on the page. The first mention of a graphic is called a lead-in statement, and your graphics must always be introduced by a lead-in. Similarly, it is typically recommended to also use a lead-out statement after the graphic. This is a statement that connects the figure to the material that follows.
- Use titles and labels for graphics.
- Include identifying detail such as illustration labels, axis labels, keys, and so on.
- Make sure graphics fit within normal margins—if they don’t, enlarge or reduce the copies. Leave at least 2 blank lines above and below graphics.
Computers have made it easier for professionals to create effective graphics. Most of the graphics in Figure 11.6 can be created in Microsoft Office Word and Excel. There may also be some occasions in which a formal report includes graphics from a particular print or online source. In these instances, it is critical to include a caption that presents the source of the graphic.
Activity 11.2 summarizes uses and audience benefits for the most frequently employed types of graphics.
Activity 11.2 | Types of Graphics
Drawings, Diagrams, and Photos
To depict objects, place, people, and relationships between them, you can use photos, drawings, diagrams, and schematics. Just as you would cite and reference a paraphrase or a direct quote, so too must you cite and reference any illustrations, diagrams, and photos that you use that were created by someone else or that were based on someone else’s data. Indicate the source of any graphic or data you have borrowed. Whenever you borrow a graphic or data from some other source, document that fact in the figure title using an in-text citation. You should also include the reference information in the reference list.
Tables
Tables are rows and columns of numbers and words (though mostly numbers). They permit rapid access to and relatively easy comparison of information. If the data is arranged chronologically (for example, sales figures over a ten-year period), the table can show trends—patterns of rising or falling activity. However, tables are not necessarily the most vivid or dramatic means of showing such trends or relationships between data—for that, you’d want to use a line graph, which is discussed in the next section.
Guidelines for using tables
Follow these general guidelines when making tables:
- As with other types of graphics, you should refer to the table in the text just preceding the table.
- You should also explain the general significance of the data in the table; don’t expect readers to figure it out entirely for themselves.
- Don’t overwhelm readers with large tables! Simplify the table data down to just that amount of data that illustrates your point—without of course distorting that data.
- Just as you would cite and reference a paraphrase or a direct quote, so too must you cite and reference any tables that you use that were created by someone else or that were based on someone else’s data. Indicate the source of any graphic or data you have borrowed. Whenever you borrow a graphic or data from some other source, document that fact in the figure title using an in-text citation. You should also include the reference information in the reference list.
Charts and Graphs
Charts and graphs are just another way of presenting the same data that is presented in tables. At the same time, however, you get less detail or less precision in a chart or graph than you do in the table. Imagine the difference between a table of sales figures for a ten-year period and a line graph for that same data. You get a better sense of the overall trend in the graph but not the precise dollar amount. Therefore, it really depends on the type of information you’d like to represent to your readers. Choose a table to show precise numbers and a chart or graph when representing trends. You have many options when deciding on how to display data in charts or graphs. In addition to line graphs, you can use are horizontal bar charts, vertical bar charts, and pie charts.
Just as you would cite and reference a paraphrase or a direct quote, so too must you cite and reference any charts or graphs that you use that were created by someone else or that were based on someone else’s data. Indicate the source of any graphic or data you have borrowed. Whenever you borrow a graphic or data from some other source, document that fact in the figure title using an in-text citation. You should also include the reference information in the reference list.
Want to learn more?
Watch the video below from Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology on How To Reference Images & Figures Using APA 7th Edition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDY0k7Nzygs